The least surprising story of the day? Zimbabwe needs food aid. Perhaps a tiny bit surprising as they seem to have finally admitted it. I did note two things about the UN.
1)Yet Mr Mugabe still refused to ask for food aid. It took a personal
intervention from Kofi Annan, the UN secretary-general, before he
agreed to yesterday’s U-turn.
2)Mr Mugabe’s request for help comes very late. The WFP has already
planned its food distribution in southern Africa for 2005, having been
assured by Mr Mugabe that Zimbabwe did not need help.
Perhaps I’m being unkind (what, Tim? Unkind? Never!) but it does seem a little odd that an organisation whose head is insisting that a country needs food aid does not actually incorporate that food aid into its plans. Further, even a blind man could see that Zimbabwe would need such aid but they simply took Mugabe’s word for it?
Sheesh.
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